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Thread ID: 6549 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-05-08
2003-05-08 02:26 | User Profile
[url=http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20030507%2F202394913.htm&sc=1110]Black Ky. Leaders Want Statue Removed[/url]
By JOE BIESK
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Black leaders are demanding the removal of Confederate President Jefferson Davis' statue from the Kentucky Capitol, questioning its place in a state that was officially neutral in the Civil War.
It's offensive,'' said Raoul Cunningham, a former state NAACP official.Even in the days when he was alive, this state did not follow him. So why do we honor him today?''
Davis' statue, one of five honoring famous Kentuckians, has stood in the Capitol Rotunda since its 1936 unveiling. It was built through donations from the United Daughters of the Confederacy and a $5,000 appropriation from the Legislature.
Davis stands against a wall, behind the right shoulder of a statue of fellow Kentuckian Abraham Lincoln.
Kentucky remained in the Union and officially stayed neutral throughout the war, although a significant part of the population sympathized with and fought for the Confederacy.
Former state Sen. Georgia Powers said having a Davis statue in the Capitol is tantamount to flying a Confederate flag above the statehouse.
The state, however, may not be able to remove the statue because the Capitol is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, said Tom Fugate, military sites preservation coordinator for the state's Heritage Council.
``When you remove it from its original position - from its place of honor - you lose its integrity,'' Fugate said.
The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups are pushing for the statue's removal.
It's offensive,'' said Raoul Cunningham, a former state NAACP official.Even in the days when he was alive, this state did not follow him. So why do we honor him today?''
This NAACP guy is a classic example of the intelligence level of his race. Davis was from Kentucky, and he was an important person who had a major impact on American history...hence, there's a statue of him in Kentucky.
2003-05-08 16:27 | User Profile
I remember reading about a similar dust-up at the University of Texas a few years back. Same rhetoric and same calls for removal of a statue of ol' Mr. Davis from the campus. What eventually happened was a compromise. The statue is still there, but the tree branches were not trimmed from around it, so the poor guy is slowly disappearing.
Meanwhile, the statue of MLK has of course been placed front and center on the South Mall (I think), complete with a contingent of security cameras guarding the bronze demi-god at all times! However, some rascals apparently took note of the fields of view of the cameras and stayed out of them long enough to pelt the statue with eggs. The reaction that followed makes hysteria seem like unconsciousness by comparison.
2003-05-08 16:45 | User Profile
Originally posted by MadScienceType@May 8 2003, 12:27 **I remember reading about a similar dust-up at the University of Texas a few years back. Same rhetoric and same calls for removal of a statue of ol' Mr. Davis from the campus. What eventually happened was a compromise. The statue is still there, but the tree branches were not trimmed from around it, so the poor guy is slowly disappearing.
Meanwhile, the statue of MLK has of course been placed front and center on the South Mall (I think), complete with a contingent of security cameras guarding the bronze demi-god at all times! However, some rascals apparently took note of the fields of view of the cameras and stayed out of them long enough to pelt the statue with eggs. The reaction that followed makes hysteria seem like unconsciousness by comparison.**
A bronze MLK statue, huh? It's very revealing that the maltreatment of that MLK statue meets with a similar response to what one would find if the bronze statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad were maltreated in the days before the fall of that regime.
Once the liberation of America arrives, then Americans will be able to have their own ceremony of pulling down MLK's bronze statue.